Our van is quite noisy, having removed literally everything, so we need to sound deaden it ourselves. We bought a big roll of sound deadening and got cutting and sticking, to make our van sound less like a metal vibration machine, and quieter and comfortable to live in. This stuff is much heavier that we thought, although sound deadening works by making the metal dense so the sound can’t vibrate it…so it makes sense I guess.
1. KNOCK KNOCK
Okay, you can stop knocking now; the sound will not change until you put some sound deadening on it. 🔕
Not every panel in the van needs sound deadening. First, the van manufacturers have already introduced certain levels of sound deadening in the shape and design of the van, such as in any creases or braces you see.
Naturally, parts of the van you’re going to cut out, like windows, roof fans, and skylights, won’t need any (no need to waste material).
Only flat panels will need sound deadening, so tiny areas or panels with natural contour lines can be ignored.
top tip
You only need to sound deaden 30% of the surface area in order to sound deaden an area properly. Using more material won’t sound deaden it much more, it will only waste material and add more weight (and sound deadening is HEAVY!!)
If you have the length and width of the panel you want to cover, multiply each by 0.55, and this will give you the dimensions of the deadening pannel you roughly need to cut in order for it to cover 30% of the area of the panel.
2. GET MEASURING
We used the layout planner of our van to get the panel measurements (which saved us hours measuring!). Then we calculated each section’s surface area and then 30% of those areas gave us the scaled-down area for the sound deadening sheet, and we used those to mark our cut lines.
3. SLICE AND DICE
We bought a 4.66m x 0.75m Dodo Deadmat Sound Deadening Roll.
Since we wanted to waste as little as possible, and the roll was 75cm wide, this meant we often worked in multiples of 5 to cut our sound-deadening sheets to size. 📐
We labelled each area, marked it out with a sharpie and straight edge, and sliced through the material with a crafting knife. They didn’t have to be exact, and there were a few rough edges, but this worked perfectly, and it was very easy to work with.
4. STICKY STICKY ROLLEY ROLLEY
Once all the sections were cut, we grabbed a hard roller, a heat gun and a pair of gloves and got sticking.
The air temperature was about 2°C (hence the gloves), and since the sound deadening sticks best in warmer temperatures, we used a heat gun to warm up the freezing metal before sticking. ❄️
It only took a few seconds for the heat gun to warm the area so we had to be careful not to overheat things.
We heated the metal panel and the sound deadening, peeled off the backing and stuck it on, using the roller to squeeze out air gaps.
quick look
- Identify panels to deaden
- Measure panels
- Mark and cut sound deadening
- Peel and stick the sound deadening
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